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Michael Kadish
2/3/96
.5
Whenever kids are told not to worry about various doctors or medical procedures, they always seem to be encouraged by those they look up to--like PBS TV shows, their parents, or their teachers-- to question their medical attendant and ask for meaning and observation. I can understand how this has led to some kids being much less worried about their conditions, but this has to be a great effort, if not a significant burden, on the doctor. How do you explain to a young child in simple English an operation that took all your years of medical school to learn?
Furthermore, if a kid can ask the questions, then you cannot stop his best friend from asking the doctor even more questions. Even if they could comprehend , what can you say to them?
"Well, can I watch you fix up Ellie's stomach?" Of course not. You can't let them watch an operation. They aren't family. Besides, if you let him watch, aside from making you more nervous about this already complex bypass surgery, you just might be offering this semi-innocent child a free ticket to his best friends' death.
If, however, with all the tact and careful explanation in the world, you still refuse to let him see the surgery, then the kid is going to question, and beg , and plead, and scream. Everybody, you included, will eventually-see you as unfeeling as that Dr. Benson guy on "ER." Never mind that you've spent the past two years trying not to be like him.
Furthermore, kids should not be the ones who make the final decision to, or not to, go ahead with the surgery. Nobody whose life is on the line should. But even if this child has been given the choice, how can you live with yourself if you sway him the wrong way? How can you go on, knowing that not only did you kill the patient, but also you convinced the child to have himself slain? To me, children should not ask their doctors for information. maybe they should just question the nurses.